To:E. M. SKLYANSKY[2]

Written:Written on April 24, 1919Published:First published in 1942 inLenin Miscellany XXXIV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page216a.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

ComradeSklyansky,

This,by the way, is pertinent to what was decided
yesterday.

Itis necessaryurgently,at once:

1)todraw up thetextof a directive from the C.C. to
all “nationals” on armyunity(integration)[1];

2)togive italsoto the press for a series of articles;

3)reuniversal military training(100% to be taken and
not
75%[3]), prepareimmediately, today, a draft decree;

4)calculate:24,000 command personnel. At the ratio of
1 to 10 that means an army of240,000.

Verifyand take as the norm at once for theCentral Board
of Supplyof both Russia and the Ukraine.

[1]“DraftC.C. Directives on Army Unity”. See present edition,
Vol. 29, pp. 404–05.—Ed.

[2]Lenin’sdirectives to Sklyansky were written on a report from
Commander-in-Chief Vatsetis dated April 23, 1919, concerning
the military situation of the R.S.F.S.R. Vatsetis argued the
necessity to unite the armed forces of the Soviet Republics and place
them under a single command; he also proposed that the system
of Universal Military Training should be temporarily done awaywith and its 24,000 instructors mobilised to strengthen the
command of the reserve units on the Eastern Front.

[3]Thereport of Vatsetis has a postscript by Aralov, who objected
to the total liquidation of the U.M.T. and proposed simply
reducing it by 50 to 75 per cent.